Eighth in the Premier League after just one defeat in their last fourteen games: some record for a side competing in only their second season of football’s top tier.
Brentford’s vulnerability when facing some of the teams below them in the League table – often those in danger of sliding back into the Championship – is nothing new, but rarely has it been demonstrated by the three fixtures collectively offering nine points that would catapult them into the magic ‘box of six’ League pinnacle.
To be fair, make that two of the fixtures. That against Southampton was relatively a cakewalk, what with the Saints suffering from a season-long listlessness plus a plethora of managers, each of whom must have been in danger of cannoning into their most recent predecessor when arriving at St Mary’s Stadium for the first time. More of which later, but first up must be Everton, now under the direction of Sean Dyche, a seasoned campaigner who had served Burnley well until hitting a bad patch which saw him skidding from his post on to the open market as Frank Lampard departed.
It was at Goodison Park that Brentford saw their proud record of a dozen games without defeat shattered. It didn’t take long, Dwight McNeil, having been recruited from Burnley, fired an unstoppable shot beyond David Raya after just 35 seconds. And Everton almost scored again, through Demarai Gray, only for a long VAR examination to conclude that they hadn’t.
Brentford, meanwhile, pressed when able and a header from Rico Henry had to be cleared by Jordan Pickford, interrupting only briefly the keeper’s non-stop advice and/or complaints to his team-mates. Despite having most possession, the Bees found progress difficult, while Everton competently dealt with the visitors’ efforts to equalise while themselves making little headway into Raya’s territory.
Thomas Frank summed up the match correctly, if prosaically, when later he said, ‘It was a game of two halves. I thought Everton were better in the first and we were better in the second.’ He also said he thought Brentford deserved a point, which is probably true but points is points and thoughts is thoughts.
Dyche’s invigoration of his side has seen them distance themselves from the door marked Exit, but when Brentford travelled to Southampton a few days later that club was still languishing at the at the bottom of the table.
The Saints managed to rack up 523 passes – more than they had in any game so far this season – but Brentford coped with attacks that largely fizzled out and Ivan Toney, while unable to score in 35 seconds, was on hand to score from close in after 32 minutes. Bryan Mbeumo’s corner was helped on by Christian Norgaard almost to Toney’s feet and a measured pace and a prod was enough to silence the home sections of a 30,438 crowd.
With Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the Euro 2324 qualifying matches to be announced the following day, Toney played majestically and it was his head-flick that set Yoane Wissa on a breakaway run that saw Brentford add a second goal with only seconds of the match left to play. Despite him still awaiting a Football League decision on punishment for illegal gambling, it was no real surprise when Toney’s name appeared on the list.
The next and last of the supposed ‘soft’ fixtures came the following Saturday, against Leicester City, with Brentford requiring a win to leapfrog both Brighton and Fulham and move into sixth place in the Premier League table. The smart money was on the Bees to join the big six but, as history proves, the smart money can often be annoyingly uncooperative.
Leicester, five places off the foot of the table, badly needed a win. If determination had anything to do with their performances, that shown by attacking midfielder James Maddison was good enough to bottle even after Brentford had taken the lead with a set-piece – untidy, but a set-piece nonetheless – just after the half-hour.
A short corner by Mbeumo saw confusion among attackers and defenders alike before Toney and Mbeumo again fed Mathias Jensen for a shot along the ground that ping-ponged twice before nestling into the net with Premier League debutant Daniel Iverson stranded.
Come the second half, Leicester had the best of it. Toney, who usually can be relied upon to be more spring-heeled that any frog, found his match in Harry Soutar, six-foot-five and big with it, while Mbeumo faded the longer the match lasted, eventually reverting to the failure to finish for which his fans, mostly, love him.
It would be hard to argue that Leicester did not deserve their equaliser, the slickest piece of football of the afternoon, with Maddison – who else? – providing a through ball so perfect that Harvey Barnes did not have to break stride before sliding it past Raya and into the net.
That was almost that, although even in this imperfect game there was much to stick in the memory: e.g. Raya’s balletic intervention, way out of his area, when he juggled, caressed and all but cuddled the ball before clearing it up-field; and the brief, sad experience of Shandon Baptiste, one of Franks’ substitutes, who survived only a short while before committing two fouls and being banished to the dressing room accompanied by the stigma of a red card.
All of which pale into insignificance when the following day the referee of the Manchester United v Fulham FA Cup quarter-final despatched two players and the Fulham coach to the naughty boys’ step after an unseemly fracas at Old Trafford.
Fulham lost the tie 3-1 because of that. Oh well, no game is perfect.
Brentford (v Leicester City): Raya; Hickey, Pinnock, Mee, Henry; Damsgaard (Dasilva 61), Norgaard, Jensen (Baptiste, 75); Mbeumo (Jansson 90+), Toney, Wissa (Schade 61).